1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to optical communications systems, in particular, to relaxation oscillation. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to optical amplifiers with damped relaxation oscillation.
2. Background of the Invention
Optical amplifiers, which boost the power of optical signals, are a basic building block for many types of optical systems. For example, fiber optic communications systems transmit information optically at very high speeds over optical fibers. A typical communications system includes a transmitter, an optical fiber, and a receiver. The transmitter incorporates information to be communicated into an optical signal and transmits the optical signal via the optical fiber to the receiver. The receiver recovers the original information from the received optical signal. In these systems, phenomena such as fiber losses, losses due to insertion of components in the transmission path, and splitting of the optical signal may attenuate the optical signal and degrade the corresponding signal-to-noise ratio as the optical signal propagates through the communications system. Optical amplifiers are used to compensate for these attenuations. As another example, receivers typically operate properly only within a relatively narrow range of optical signal power levels; optical amplifiers are used to boost an optical signal to the proper power range for the receiver.
An optical amplifier is used to apply a gain to an optical signal. This gain is measured by the power of the signal leaving the amplifier divided by the power of the signal entering the signal. Therefore, if the signal's gain through an amplifier is greater than one, then the amplifier has amplified (i.e., increased the signal's power) the signal. For an optical amplifer to function correctly in a system, it is desirable for the optical amplifier to have a known and stable gain. If the optical amplifier's gain is not stable and known, it is difficult to design and build optical systems that function well. Thus, it is desirable to have an optical amplifier with a stable gain.
Relaxation oscillation results from interplay between the laser field intensity in the resonator and the atomic inversion. An increase in the field intensity causes a reduction in the inversion due to the increased rate of stimulated transitions. This causes a reduction in the gain, which in turn tends to decrease the field intensity. Since relaxation oscillation affects the gain, relaxation oscillation acts to remove stability from the gain of an optical amplifier. Thus, to provide stable gain, it is desirable to damp the relaxation oscillation.